Much Ado about Nothing (Vol. 31) | Elliot Krieger (essay date 1979)
Elliot Krieger (essay date 1979)
SOURCE: "Social Relations and the Social Order in Much Ado about Nothing," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, Vol. 32, 1979, pp. 49-61.
[In this essay, Krieger examines the two social codes of Messina—domestic and military—and contends that "one of the primary motivations in Much Ado is to combine the two codes into a more comprehensive aristocratic ideal."]
The distinction between appearance and reality is articulated as a theme in Shakespeare's comedies in two distinct ways: (1) fortune, or some other external force, imposes on the characters some incorrect perception of reality, and, as the plot proceeds, that misperception rectifies itself (e.g. Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream); or (2) some characters voluntarily create deceptions that impel the plot, initially by deceiving other characters about...
[The entire page is 6260 words long]
Navigate
